Sin City: Konoha
by Jamesnomoon
Summary: AU. Naruto-verse set in a grittier modern setting, largely following the same storyline as the original Manga. Not that you can tell from this chapter. No pairings initially planned, though I may give in to temptation.


**Disclaimer:** I did not create, nor do I own, Naruto. This makes me sad.

**Auther Notes: **I have included suffixes and honourifics, as I really like them, and they reflect the more social and political sides of the world I would like to portray.

All Jutsu will also be said in Japanese, simply because they sound cooler. Thats it. No other reason.

**Universe description:** The setting for this is largely set within one City, Konoha. It is a brutal, decaying city, full of dizzying highs and truly disgusting lows. If you have seen the movie, Sin City, you know exactly of what I type. The Shinobi within this City are a myth, a back alley and high society legend spoken of only between close friends and conspiracy theorists, and are only hired by those with the right connections...and never directly. All Shinobi within Konoha are part of The Village, the name for the loose alliance of Shinobi Clans that include the Yakuza-like Hyuuga Clan, the extended brutal street gang of the Inuzuka and the information gathering specialists and social predators, the Yamanaka, to name but a few. There are of course non-clan affiliated Shinobi, such as the Haruno family and Rock Lee, and so on. These Ninja are not granted the same level of social status as those from a Clan, and of course the Clans themselves have a social order, with the Hyuuga currently claiming the top spot with the fairly recent internal destruction of the Uchiha Clan.

More details of the internal workings of both The Village and of individual Clans will be made apparent as the story progresses.

Please enjoy.

**Sin City: Konoha**

Snow swept through the streets of the city like an army. It searched the back alleys for those foolish enough to be poor and besieged them with hammerblows of frigid wind. It took the main streets with a howling, uninterrupted blizzard, enforcing martial law with icy drifts of powder snow. The rooftops were prowled by whirling pools of the same snow that patrolled the streets below, making aesthetically pleasing patterns on the tiles as if bored with their tertiary, unseen duty. One did see them, watching them with bright blue eyes that danced with simple delight at the display below him on the roof of the tall office building.

He squats on his tip-toes, balanced precariously on a old and battered aerial. His hair is ruffled, unkept and blond, like a dandilion in deep summer. His clothes are similarly desheveled, being an orange and blue tracksuit one size too large for his small frame, nearly an eyesore in the savage winter wonderland in which he sits, seemingly unbothered by the freezing conditions. His face is young, still chubby with babyfat it seems, and bear three marks which resemble whiskers across each cheek. They ripple and expand each time he smiles and grins, which is often. The boy moves, and instead of the awkward graceless movement that one expects from a boy that age, dressed like he is, he moves with a careful predatory finesse. Practiced and smooth, he steps from the thin metal that somehow supports his body and drops onto the roof beneath him with barely a sound. Someone isn't impressed.

"Hey, Naruto. Still playing at being a Shinobi? It'll be a decade before you're worthy of the name. Give up and go home." A irritated, harsh voice cuts through the air like a knife. Naruto turns and glares at his antagonist. The boy he sees is his "team-mate", though Naruto couldn't see why he should use the term. Dark eyes regard him with contempt from beneath swept back obsidian black hair. Clothed in dark blue, arms folded, he was a menacing figure in the half-light.

"Sasuke, you take that back or I swear I'll..." Naruto starts to advance slowly toward the boy, fists tightening at his side as anger boils in his gut.

Sasuke sneers and opens his mouth, but is cut off by a slightly nervous but annoyed voice. A girls voice.

"You'll do nothing to Sasuke-kun, Naruto, or I'll beat your head in! Sasuke-kun, ignore him. He's an idiot. So...Sasuke-kun, I was thinking, after todays meeting with our Sensei do you want to go ou..."

"No."

Sasuke turns away and snorts, turning his back on the girl that detaches herself from the shadows and approaches the pair.

"But...Sakura..." Naruto grows quiet and trails off, her words biting deeper than anything Sasuke could manage. He looks at her, stung. She is willowy, pale skin contrasting agreeably against her red-pink clothing, dyed pink hair framing serious deep green eyes that spark with rage as she looks back at Naruto.

"Now look what you've done! Apologise to Sasuke-kun, now!"

"He started it, he said..."

"He probably had a good reason for it, unlike you. Moron."

Naruto sighs, and looks out over the cityscape. He was smitten with the girl, her intelligence, deep passions and keen insight eclipsing the abuse she handed to him on a daily basis. He knew he didn't have a chance with her, but he kept assailing her walls, trying to make her notice him for anything other than a failure. It would take a miracle, especially teamed up with Uchiha Sasuke, the object of _her_ affections. She seemed to be having as much luck as Naruto, however, with Sasuke being cold, introverted and distant as he was. Naruto sighs again, and watches the snow drift over the city as Sakura sulked behind him and Sasuke brooded in the corner. None of the trio noticed the figure on the nearest building.

"What a mess." He thought. "They haven't even been officially teamed up yet and already they bicker and argue. Well, I'll just have to shake them up. They'll be no use to The Village otherwise."

"Where is he? It's been 45 minutes now." Sakura sighs, slipping her cell-phone back into her pouch. "Did we get the time wrong?"

Sasuke looks around, curious, and a little concerned. He pushes off from the wall he's leaning on and walks toward the other two. Naruto looks up from his reverie at the edge of the building.

"Huh? It has?"

Sasuke grunts, looking around before approaching the edge of the building next to Naruto, and looks over the edge. He sucks a quick, startled, breath in into his chest and vaults backwards, somersaulting up and out into the middle of the roof with weighted throwing knives, kunai, leaping into his hands as if alive. Shuriken shoot up into the sky through where Sasuke's head was.

"Trap!" Sasuke snaps, trying to watch all directions as once.

"What...! What...?" Naruto stumbles away from the edge, fumbling a kunai of his own into his hand as he attempts to get to his feet.

"Sasuke-kun, are you ok?" Sakura runs to Sasuke's side, eyes wide with concern and fear. She grips at one of his arms, pulling at him roughly.

"Sakura, get...down!" Sasuke's eyes widen and he brutally kicks Sakura off him and to the floor, tearing a piece of Sasuke's shirt off in her hand. He shifts his weight as two more kunai hurtle past him, managing to slice a neat crimson line across his left cheek as they pass. The clatter of metal on concrete is loud as they bounce off the wall behind him. Naruto scrambles to his feet.

"There!" Naruto lets fly with his kunai at a vague shape in the shadows created by twilight and the snowstorm. It disappears into the flurry, and is gone, as is the shadow.

"Naruto, you idiot! There's nothing there, you just wasted a kunai." Sasuke snarls, and looks around as Sakura pushes herself to her feet. She looks at Sasuke, a hurt look in her eyes, but quavers "S-Sasuke-kun...t-thanks for sa..."

"Shut up. You almost got me killed! Stupid bitch." Sasuke turns away and looks around, ignoring the other two. Sakura stifles a sob, as Naruto looks off into the wall of white.

"There was something there, I know it..." Naruto narrows his eyes, and runs off into the storm.

"Naruto!" Sakura's wail is lost on the small figure as he disappears.

"No cohesion, no teamwork, even the rare concern they show for each other is selfish and needy, However...not without promise." He smiles, just slightly "They need to be pushed harder...wait...hmm, impressive. And yet very, very dumb."

"I've got you now, whoever you are! My name is Uzimaki Naruto, and it's the name of the guy who's gonna beat you into the pavement!" Naruto laughs proudly, and slips a pair of kunai into his hands as he studies his opponant. The man he faced was tall, very tall in fact, made even taller by his shock of silver-white hair that stood mostly up, even in this wind. His left eye, covered by a bandana bearing the protective plate of a Shinobi, made him look look roguish The heavy jacket he wore put him at least at Chunin Rank, possibly even Jonin. Not good. Naruto grinned. A challenge, at least. At this range, and in this weather, he couldn't make out which Shinobi group he was a part of. It didn't matter. He was going down.

Kakashi sighs and thinks. "In this weather I can't even read my book. I hate this team already." He looks at the little figure in front of him with renewed interest. "Is he serious?"

Naruto runs at the figure yelling, kunai slicing through the air. He brings the kunai around..._tries_ to bring them around. He's staring at the concrete floor, the cold moisture of melting snow soaking through his knees that have been forced down. His arms behind his head, the kunai pointed at his spine, he was helpless.

"No way...no-one can move that fast." Naruto grits his teeth and tries to push against the force bearing down on him. Nothing. This was unreal.

Kakashi pushes down a little further, piercing skin and drawing blood to make his point. "You don't have a chance, Uzimaki Naruto. Go back to your team, and then maybe..." Kakashi blinks as Naruto moves. He feels Naruto's shoulders shift painfully, and then watches Naruto roll away on his dislocated joints. "Thats got to hurt..." Kakashi muses, whirling Naruto's kunai idly around his fingers by their eyelets.

Naruto grinds his teeth together, weeping through the burning agony writhing across his back. He rolls up against the parapet at the edge of the building and slams his back repeatedly against the unyielding stone. The agony was replaced with first great searing bouts of torture across his spine and shoulder that left spots across his vision, and then a dull persistant ache that Naruto knew would be with him for a week or more. He shakes his head and refocuses several times on the now threateningly casual figure in front of him as the spots fade. "Right...time to play the ace."

Pushing himself to his feet, Naruto transfixes his opponant with a killer gaze and brings his hands together to make a Seal. "You want me? Fine, have me. Lots of me! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"What!?"

Kakashi dodged the first 17 kunai with relative ease, the sudden burst of adreneline lending him wings as he leapt high to take a perch on a passing phone-cable, the rapid fire barrage striking nothing but air. There was a Naruto waiting for him, and the cable was cut before Kakashi landed. Two more Naruto's were headed upward, fists incoming. Kakashi brought his feet down hard on their faces, using his superior reach to disperse the two clones with faint pops and a whisp of smoke that was lost to the wind. He then blocked a kick from the clone that had been on the wire and had fallen with him, using the momentum to spin, plant a foot in the Naruto's chest and push off, the figure launching over the side of the building. It evaporated before it left sight and Kakashi landed in the middle of the roof. Two humanoid shadows were just visible through the white haze. Clones or not, two were not an issue. Still it was incredible that a Genin, particularly this one, had managed to learn a Jutsu that Jonin struggled with. He had heard the tales of course, that a Cadet had managed to get into the central chambers and stolen a forbidden Jutsu scroll, but to think he had managed to learn something and put it to practical use as well? Considering he had used fine if rough tactics, given this ones reputation, this entire situation was remarkable.

Naruto watched the dim figure land ahead of him, and he scowled. No clones left, after a moments fighting. This wasn't good. As Naruto's mind ran wild trying to devise a plan to defeat this formidable foe, he sensed a presence beside him.

"Good job distracting him, dope. Now get out of my way and let a real Shinobi deal with this."

**Inevitable Ending Authors Note: **This is my first time posting on this site, and my first piece of writing for fun in over a decade. Please leave a review that is, if not entirely kind, at least can be imagined to be constructive criticism if I sorta back off from the monitor and squint.


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